Awkward Soul

More samples! Wahh, this one is kinda old, oh well. This one came from Kittena!

First sip and I’m reminded that 52 Teas makes good lemon teas. The lemon tastes zippy and flavorful with a hint of sweet. The strawberry fruit hits me as a mild aftertaste. The white base seems a little stale, however, this sample has been kicking around my “try it” box for awhile.
I’m gonna wish list this one – I can see this being a killer iced tea, with slices of lemon and strawberries! YUM!

Sip down sample! This one’s from Kasumi no Chagin.

I got 4 rounds with a gaiwan on this black. First 2 infusions were really good! Had an interesting sweetness and fruity (grapey raisin?) going on that I wasn’t expecting. However, steeping 3 it started getting bitter and steeping 4 was full out bitter.

I find the bird logo on these Majani teas quite attractive!

Sip down!

I gotta say, this tea is lovely. Cool name! Still tastes like minty cream soda to me, with a slight astringency.

Must drink down samples to make room for more tea! Maybe I should just buy more tea tins.

I’m at like 197 teas – dangerously close to 200. Sad thing is that I never cupboard my samples and they get shuffled to the bottom of tea tins – so my stash is probably more like 225. Time to drink ALL THE SAMPLES, or at least try to dent them.

This one is an old one from Rachel Sincere. Tastes like.. wine? It’s oddly malty to me. It has a slight sourness from the pineapple thats rounded out by the raisiny grape flavor. Very interesting, not really for me /waves fist at raisins, but I think i might have to get some for my MIL, who I’ve been getting wine teas for. However, she says she’s overloaded with tea – with a stash of like 12. OOOooooOooOOOO, 12! I don’t think I could function with a stash of 12!

Trying to get the hang of my gaiwan. After my first experience (that I’ll blog about later) my gaiwan skillz got better. Today I’m just accident prone. I knocked over my cookie batter bowl, then the electric hand mixer. I missed chucking my tea leaves into my compost pail, so there’s red hibiscus tea splotches on my tile. Probably not a day to gaiwan, but I’m stubborn.

I got 3 runs so far, twice burning my fingers and one spilling accident. Of course, I just cleaned the kitchen this morning, but now its got cookie dough and tea all over the floor and counter!

First two quick steepings of this black was pretty good – rich, bold and a little caramel like. 3rd round my cup is now astringent, but still good.

Though, this tea goes well with my cookies!
http://www.culinate.com/content/1682/Chinese+Five-Spice+Cookies
I wish my cookies were pretty, I just sliced them. Knowing my luck today, I would of cut myself with the cookie cutter.

TY Kasumi no Chagin for the sample!

First to tea log Blushing Geisha?

I thought this tea would be really tart. Green tea, jasmine flowers, marigold petals, safflowers, hibiscus, and natural flavors? Hmmm.

Anyways, Blushing Geisha is really easy to steep! 212F for 2 to 3 minutes and it comes out a delicious, not too tart, lightly floral & sweet and very hibiscus fruity tea! The green tea is light here, as the mystery flower fruityness took over. With sugar or made as an iced tea – watch out! Very good and exotic!

Only thing that didn’t come out was the resteep and cold steep. Resteep was too light and the cold steep was too tart and not all the flavors came out.

Full blog review at Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/blushing-geisha-from-steep-city-teas/

My husband, the tea hater, needs to try this one as he might like it. He was at work when I was drinking this – I’ll report back if I can get him to try this tea!

NoooooOOooOOOoOOoooOOoo! Sip down!
/downward spiral

I made Kamba Berry iced – came out super strong strawberry! There was quite a bit of small bits at the bottom of my bag. Though, it resulted in a very natural tasting strawberry tea! Very yummy!

Back to making cookies! Hate when I’ve already made the cookie batter and I find out I need to chill the dough. Boo, the oven is all ready to go!

I forgot I had this tea! I was in a hurry to make some cold steeps before I went out to do grocery shopping.

I cold steeped this.. uhh.. a couple hours? I forgot which one was this one until I took a sip. Coconut? Walnut – ahh walnut brittle!

My first Verdant Tea! Uh oh!

I selected this oolong as my first, hey, Oolong Owl, yeah?

I did a gongfu brewing and went completely tea drunk crazy. I need to do this again! LOL

Very good oolong – I was impressed how rich and flavorful this tea was in very short steeps! Lots of great nutty, caramel and floral notes. At infusion #8, I was getting mineral notes and bell pepper vegetal which was interesting. I had a really good tea trip adventure!

The cold steep was okay, but I prefer this tea hot!

Full, long and crazy review on my blog, the Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/shui-jin-gui-wuyi-oolong-from-verdant-teas-tea-review/
Owls wearing tea strainers? Oh boy

I’m watching more k dramas – tonight is Rooftop Prince! Man, I like historicals. I almost was tempted to watch Faith over again, that series is amazing!

So, veg’n out on popcorn and this tea. There was a time I thought “I will blog ALL my teas” but figured in the end, with 200 teas in my cupboard, that will take a year. So, I figured I woulnd’t blog this one.

This one is okay. It has a tropical edge with the pineapple and papaya, however the dreaded raisin is present. I don’t mind raisins in tea (ie, Oatmeal Raisin cookie by Della Terra), though they don’t seem to agree with me so far for fruit herbals. The taste is just kinda funky. Oh well. I’ll finish this off.

Back logg’n

I had a crazy week with etsy related stuff – I came out with a new owl crochet pattern, which took up most of my week of writing, taking photos of owls, answering emails and repeated trips to the post office. Arg.

So, I forgot to tea log this. Orange Brulee is very candy like – the orange is sweet and strong, with savory caramel and creamy flavor! Bit grassy at times too. I got a solid resteep and probably could of gotten another one.

I found this tea pretty sweet – I like to try a new tea once with sweetner, but Orange Brulee was already pretty sweet!

I love how strong and full flavored this tea is. Also amazing how DTT got the orange, caramel and cream to come out. However, as much as I like candy like teas, this was pushing the sweetness level for me – so I can see myself saving this tea for super sugar cravings.

Full Review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/orange-brulee-from-della-terra-teas-tea-review/

I’m still not used to the climate here in southern california. Friends and family back home are talking about the snow melting, and it was 20c here today. Of course, not used to the dryness vs. Vancouver rainyness and I’m coughing more plus allergies are starting! Boo!

ANyways, I needed my required pu’erh intake – I swear when I drink pu’erh any slight cough I have goes away. And after this cup, I have only 1 cup left of the tropical white pu’erh – that went fast! I dig the tropical flavor here – totally reflects living in this warm climate. 1.5 minute steeping was very nice!

I miss the rain and wearing my awesome daisy print rain boots. I almost wore them yesterday because I felt like it, even though theres no rain in sight and it was warm outside.

Tea peeps? This tea is FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!

This is a new tea for me, and from what I was told from the tea seller, yunomi.us, this is a very traditional japanese flavor. Ehh! A Challenge! An Adventure! Lets go!

Dry leaf, these pretty blossoms smells like pickles. Oh boy! Most likely they smell like this since they are salt pickled cherry blossoms.

The taste? I get a cute kiss of a sweet cherry taste that is floral. The sakura tea’s flavor flutters softly towards a more savory flavor that’s a little salty. The more I sip away, the more stronger and floral this tea gets.

Full review with lots of gorgeous pictures on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/sakura-tea-from-yunomi-us-tea-review/

Yes, Zen Tea’s Coconut Oolong – we are together again! I could not resist adding you to my cart.

I dig the floral and the sweet coconuttyness in this tea! The oolong here is fantastic as well! YUM!

And I drank my entire pot really fast while I was working on my crochet blog and pattern sales.

Wanna see? OWL CROCHET CUTENESS
http://awkwardsoul.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/owl-amigurumi-crochet-pattern-tea-mug-owls/
The Snowy Owl is a photo bomber and the Green Owl likes tea!

I mindlessly sipped away at this tea this morning while I worked on my crochet pattern stuff.

Last night I was so tired after brazilian jiu jitsu, but I needed to buy soymilk after class. I saw chocolate soy was onsale and I bought that instead of buying the usual stuff – now I’m stuck with chocolate milk for everything!

I wanted a pancake for breakfast and it was made with chocolate soy – I figured Eight Candles would match. I almost had S’mores, but I have more of Eight Candles. It was a very caramel, marshmallowy chocolate morning!

I have some leftover of this tea from a tea trade – I let my roommate try some of this tea. He’s the one who drink coffee thats insanely strong, and also best friend of my husband, this friend has been having a rough time with his health, despite being not even 30 yet.

Anyways, he was steeping it up, and I went upstairs to my office to work on tomorrow’s tea review. He aim’d me and said, “that is the best tea i’ve evar had”
(yes, our household instant messages each other, despite we could probably walk or yell across the house).

He was really happy, and loved the resteep! I think he wants to go to Teavana and get some more! I’m gonna make him cookies after dinner.

Hmmmm. I made this as an iced latte and it doesn’t taste right. Maybe I added too much sugar, or this tea doesn’t work this way.
The peanut butter tastes kinda funky instead of smooth yummy. Ehhhh, next time hot!

I made this as a breakfast smoothie this morning. I’m too lazy to make oatmeal or eggs.
So, raspberry white matcha, some frozen raspberries, soymilk and soy protein. The raspberry flavoring is really strong!

I’ve been loving this pic http://cheezburger.com/7168217856
though, relating it to tea caffeine instead.

Happy Easter!
This was my easter morning tea while I made french toast! Mmm, this tea is good – I love the candy like strawberry and tangyness!

No chocolate in me yet, though I tend to buy all my easter chocolates tomorrow!

Been having a long day. My husband got in a minor car accident yesterday (just cosmetic car damage) and dealing with that – plus he got like 2 hours notice he has to do a 3 hour drive to help out his friend, who’s quite sick. I was almost done my review, but I had to stop and start making food for his drive, as well as treats for his friend.

Finally, onto Tropical Mango! This tea is best iced! It has that “classic iced tea” flavor, but with juicy mango. Much better than store bought mango iced tea!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/tropical-mango-from-teajo-tea-review/

Dear Steepster,

You need to try this tea cold steeped. I didn’t think it would turn out, as I thought the coconut wouldn’t come through very well. I was totally wrong. 3.5 hours in the fridge turned this tea sweet, coconutty, refreshing with lots of levels of dimension from the white tea. Also creamy. Better than coconut water!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/coconut-creme-from-the-persimmon-tree-tea-review/

Regards,
Totoro?

p.s. tea leaves look great on my head.

Oooh, pear tea! I got this in a free sample weekend deal. Man, Della Terra sales are super tempting, especially when they got new teas!

I love the fun appearance with the golden sugar crystals and pearly gold sugar balls, mixed with the black tea leaves!

Taste wise, is a juicy – either drippy ripe or baked pear that is sweet with a black tea base. The pear is quite delicate. Simple and tasty! I was expecting something more fun, since the appearance is cool and recent tasting of Della Terra’s more unique teas (corn!)
This be a good tea for a new tea drinker, or a gift for one of those old school black tea drinkers.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/the-perfect-pear-from-della-terra-teas-tea-review/

I got so many black teas that have been lonely and not used since I’ve been on a green and white kick. Ditto for my mate collection!

I realized yesterday that my cold is gone, probably from sinus rinsing (ew) so yay! I can go back to working on reviews! And drinking good teas – though I did drink that sakura sencha from Den’s yesterday, lol!

Fantasy, today tasted quite smokey caramel to me. Not much in fruity taste sadly, but kinda sweet from the honey in the blend. Not bad, but good black tea to start my day.

O M G
This tea cold steeped for like 3 hours is AMAZING!

It’s smooth, really buttery, sweet with a hint of cherry and floral. Its taste is like the smell of falling cherry blossoms.

WOW

So good! I wanna guzzle this whole cup down, but I should savor it!